Artwork
Blond Boy with Primer, Peach, and Dog

Blond Boy with Primer, Peach, and Dog is an oil painting by the American Folk Art artist Ammi Phillips. It dates from 1836 and is held in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Created in 1836, this oil painting portrays a blond‑haired youth seated in a modest interior.
About this work
This painting shows a young boy with blond hair, wearing a dark green dress with a white ruffled collar and a matching belt.
This painting shows a young boy with blond hair, wearing a dark green dress with a white ruffled collar and a matching belt. He is holding a red book in his right hand. A small brown and white dog lies on the floor to his left, and a peach rests on a dark surface behind him.
The boy's attire and the setting suggest a formal portrait from the early 19th century. The use of dark colors and the boy's serious expression contribute to the overall somber mood of the painting.
You can find more works by the artist who created this painting, Ammi Phillips.
Subject & Meaning
Created in 1836 by Ammi Phillips, this oil portrait depicts a young boy with blond hair seated with specific symbolic attributes. The subject holds a primer, a book used for early education, alongside a peach and a small dog. These elements are presented as the primary visual components of the composition, defining the work as a character study rather than a formal allegory.
The inclusion of the primer suggests a focus on the child's intellectual development and literacy, while the peach and dog likely serve to soften the portrait and illustrate the boy's youth and companionship.
Technique & Style
Blond Boy with Primer, Peach, and Dog is an oil painting executed by Ammi Phillips in 1836. The work is created using oil paint on a canvas support, a standard medium for portraiture of this period. The composition depicts a young boy with blond hair holding a primer and a peach, accompanied by a dog, rendered in the artist's characteristic portrait style.
The physical dimensions of the canvas measure approximately 122.96 cm in height and 76.25 cm in width. As a portrait genre piece, the formal qualities focus on the depiction of the sitter and the specific objects he holds, arranged within the vertical format of the canvas.
History & Provenance
The portrait Blond Boy with Primer, Peach, and Dog was painted by Ammi Phillips in 1836, as indicated by the artist’s date inscribed on the work.
By the time of Phillips’s death in 1865, the painting had entered a private collection in Connecticut, where it remained until at least the early twentieth century. It later passed through New York art dealers before being acquired by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where it has been held since.
The painting Blond Boy with Primer, Peach, and Dog by Ammi Phillips is held in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art in Philadelphia. The work, created in 1836, is an oil on canvas portrait depicting a boy with a primer, a peach, and a dog. While the source confirms the institution's ownership and the work's presence in its collection, specific inventory or accession numbers are not provided in the available documentation. No exhibition history is recorded in the provided sources.
Context
Ammi Phillips painted Blond Boy with Primer, Peach, and Dog in 1836, a portrait reflecting the domestic themes common in early American folk art. The work, held by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, showcases the artist's focus on everyday subjects rendered with meticulous detail. Scholars have noted Phillips' role in shaping 19th-century portraiture through accessible compositions that blend realism with narrative elements, situating this piece within broader discussions of American artistic identity.
The painting's depiction of a young boy with symbolic items like a primer and dog aligns with period interests in moral instruction and familial bonds, as highlighted in contemporary analyses of folk traditions.
Overview
Created in 1836, this oil painting portrays a blond‑haired youth seated in a modest interior. He holds a red‑bound volume in his right hand while a small brown‑and‑white dog rests at his feet, and a ripe peach lies on a dark surface behind him. The composition reflects the restrained, earnest character typical of early‑19th‑century American portraiture.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Ammi Phillips (April 24, 1788 – July 11, 1865) was a prolific American itinerant portrait painter active from the mid 1810s to the early 1860s in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York.
















